The present invention is directed to the field of bar code data collection and more particularly to the field of accessing information pertaining to a bar coded object.
The efficient distribution of product-related information to end-users and potential end-users is an important tool for minimizing sales cycle times, improving user satisfaction, reducing warranty costs, and minimizing manufacturer liability. The presentation of desired and regulated information often occupies a great deal of product label space and is often limiting to the industrial and aesthetic design of product packaging.
Explosive growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has provided an efficient means for the distribution of information, and product-related information in particular. To date, accessing product information has required a user to determine the manufacturer of the product, determine the manufacturer""s URL, enter the URL into a web browser, and search the manufacturer""s web site to find relevant product information.
The present invention makes use of a product""s UPC or other symbol to access data about the product.
The symbology-related background of the invention is described in The Bar Code Book by Roger C. Palmer, hereby incorporated by reference.
In the field of automated data collection and, more particularly, optical data encodation, bar code symbologies have achieved wide use and have proved themselves to be very reliable and cost effective. Conventional linear bar code symbologies encode data as a series of variable width bars separated by variable width spaces. Generally, bars are formed from dark ink on a light colored background that forms the spaces.
One particularly successful and widespread family of bar code symbologies is the UPC/EAN/JAN family. This group of bar code symbologies is used to uniquely identify virtually every type of pre-packaged retail item sold in i.e. U.S. and Canada, Europe, and Japan, respectively.
The present invention teaches a method and apparatus for providing rapid and convenient Internet access to information about a product using the product""s UPC/EAN/JAN symbol to locate the information.
One aspect of the present invention relates a business method involving registering at least a portion of a product""s UPC/EAN/JAN symbol as a URL for accessing information about the product.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method of scanning a symbol, parsing data from the symbol, appending additional data to form a URL, opening a browser, directing the browser to the URL, and displaying information relevant to the symbol.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a device for scanning a product symbol, accessing a URL corresponding to the product symbol, and displaying data relative to the product.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a business method involving the formation of a web site that provides links to manufacturers of products using at least a portion of product UPC/EAN/JAN symbols to determine the links.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a business method involving a web application that stores product data, receives a query from an end device, and transmits product data to the end device according to UPC/EAN/JAN data contained within the query.